Enterprise customers often have a customer edge router installed at the customer premises connected to a provider edge router at the provider edge of the service provider to allow user equipment at the customer premises to access external packet data networks such as the Internet. T1/T3 connections at the customer premises are typically used to connect the customer edge router to the provider edge router through a service provider multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) core network. A problem may arise in situations in which there is a failure of the connection between the customer edge router and the provider edge router, resulting in loss of connectivity between the user equipment at the customer premises and the packet data network. Thus, it is sometimes desirable to establish a backup connection between the customer edge router and the provider edge router for use in situations in which there is a failure of the primary connection.